Oregon schools official gets prison

Brent Crosson, once a rising star in the accounting division of the Oregon Department of Education, will serve two years in federal prison for stealing nearly $1 million in federal money meant for schools.

U.S. District Judge Garr King meted out the sentence Monday, turning aside a recommendation that the Salem father of two be imprisoned longer because he abused the trust placed in him to steward money on behalf of Oregon schoolchildren.

King noted that the 36-year-old accounting manager cooperated with investigators, repaid $750,000 of the $925,000 he stole and agreed to give up everything he owns, including proceeds from the sale of his sports car and his former home. He admitted his crime. And he will have to repay the rest of the money after he leaves prison, King said.

But a rambling account that Crosson gave in court Monday raised questions whether he has accepted responsibility. King asked him how he had planned to repay the money, as he claimed was his intention.

Crosson said he took the money after other supervisors and managers signed off that the federal funds had been spent, leaving him with no way to reconcile account balances or explain why money was still there. He said his former boss told him, "and I quote, 'You're the accountant. Do something with it.' " So he put the money into his own account "while someone could determine what to do."

Crosson spent some of the money on a new $540,000 home and invested or saved most of the rest. He told the judge Monday that he was trying to figure out how to pay it back when he got caught. "I was working on it, but I wasn't sure how," he said.

His former bosses at the Oregon Department of Education reacted with anger and incredulity, saying his last-minute version implicating others was inaccurate nonsense.

Joanne Timshel, who supervised Crosson as the department's accounting director until she retired in 2006, said she was "stunned" by his allegation she told him to "do something" with leftover federal money. "I never said that. I would never say anything like that."

Crosson stole the money from June 2006 to July 2007, using an elaborate scheme he devised.

He reclassified the federal money, designed to promote student health, charter schools and drug-free learning environments, as money owed rather than cash on hand. Then he doctored purchasing forms to direct clerks on his staff to use the money to pay CGA Wholesale, an online firearms and ammunition seller he owned. He deposited the money into his personal account.

His criminal conduct continued until state and federal investigators, acting on information from more than one tipster, discovered him. He was put on leave that month and fired the next.

Officials at the Education Department have since tightened procedures. Employees in financial jobs get deeper background checks and more ethics training; access to financial software has been scaled back; and managers routinely review financial reports for the programs they run.

But officials concede they can't guarantee that a high-ranking insider with criminal intent could no longer crack the system.

The judge's order that Crosson report to federal prison in Sheridan in August represents a precipitous fall for the accountant. Once released, he will face three more years of federal monitoring and won't be able to sell or give away anything worth $500 or more without permission.

Crosson has declined to talk to reporters after his court appearances.

His ex-wife, Tiffany Crosson, urged the judge to deal leniently with him. She said he is an otherwise honest man who felt under pressure to provide for his growing family and "made a terrible mistake."

They married in 2005 and moved into his modest Salem home with her three young children from her first marriage. By spring 2006, with a baby of their own on the way, they wanted a bigger home.

They found and fancied a $540,000, 3,000-square-foot home in a new Salem subdivision. She called it her "dream home." He thought a good man should provide for his wife and family, even though he was earning about $45,000 a year, Tiffany Crosson said. "He cracked under the pressure."

He remains jobless. The couple are divorced. Their dream home is up for sale. He has no assets left.

Brent Crosson has remained an active and loving father while facing prison time, Tiffany Crosson said. "I still love him and I have forgiven him. He's having a really hard time forgiving himself."